All posts tagged: started

A Humanist Community in Florida Stopped Asking “What Do We Believe?” and Started Asking “What Can We Build?”

A Humanist Community in Florida Stopped Asking “What Do We Believe?” and Started Asking “What Can We Build?”

Published by Sam Flores

In the fall of 1998, Jerry Lieberman walked into a board meeting of the Humanists of Florida (HoF) in Orlando and told the room something they didn’t want to hear. The organization had no business plan, no fundraising strategy and no vision that extended beyond its next annual conference. Its membership was aging. Its events, while pleasant, were largely social — opportunities for like-minded people to reaffirm their philosophy to one another. If humanism was going to matter in Florida, Lieberman argued, the Humanists of Florida had to stop being a discussion group and start building something. He was newly retired to Florida after a career in political science and organizing — a Ph.D. from NYU, decades of writing platforms for democratic organizations, building party coalitions and writing grant proposals for government and foundations. But for Lieberman, retirement meant investing himself in a progressive social movement. When Sol Klotz, the then-president of Humanists of Florida asked Lieberman to present his ideas to their board, Lieberman showed up with a three-page essay titled “American Humanism’s Pathway …

‘Seeking connection’: the video game where players stopped shooting and started talking | Games

‘Seeking connection’: the video game where players stopped shooting and started talking | Games

Published by Sam Flores

The video game Arc Raiders is set in a lethal imagining of an apocalyptic future for humanity. Survivors have been forced to live deep underground in colonies while mysterious, murderous AI machines patrol the surface. Only the desolate ruins of former cities survive, and reckless human “raiders” take trips topside to conduct dangerous scavenging missions. For all the menace of these armed robots, called Arcs, the deadly droids are not the biggest threat in this hugely popular game, which was released late last year and has sold more than 14m copies. Raiders operate with the constant anxiety that another person will shoot them on sight and steal their loot. Mercilessness is rewarded in this kind of competitive, high-stakes world. So it has come as a jolt to the game’s developers at Embark Studios in Sweden that many players are not shooting at each other at all. “It caught us a little bit by surprise,” says executive producer Aleksander Grøndal, who has found that many people play “a more peaceful version of the game than we …

The Home Depot Just Started Its Biggest Sale of the Season—Here Are 50+ Deals Worth Grabbing

The Home Depot Just Started Its Biggest Sale of the Season—Here Are 50+ Deals Worth Grabbing

Published by Jenni Sidey

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more › Sign Up For Goods 🛍️ Product news, reviews, and must-have deals. The Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday sale is live right now, running April 9–22 while supplies last. It’s one of the biggest home improvement sales of the year, spanning power tools, outdoor power equipment, grills, patio furniture, appliances, and more — and some of the deals are genuinely excellent. We’re talking Milwaukee and Ryobi yard tools at their lowest prices of the season, Weber grills marked down across the board, and major appliances from GE, Samsung, and LG saving you hundreds. We’ve gone through the entire flyer and browsed the sale page to pull out the best deals worth your attention right now. Best deals under $100 Earthgro 1.5 cu. ft. Wood Mulch — 5 bags for $10 (was $3.97 each) Home Depot $19.85 $10 See It People wait for this sale every year. Five bags of Earthgro mulch for $10 is essentially half price, …

He Started a Social Network Alone. Then 5 Million People Signed Up

He Started a Social Network Alone. Then 5 Million People Signed Up

Published by skeptic

If you haven’t heard of UpScrolled before, a brief primer: It’s a social media platform not too different from, say, Instagram or TikTok. You can share photos or short videos, follow accounts, comment on posts, and amass a following of your own. Nothing too earth-shattering, right? UpScrolled founder Issam Hijazi would beg to differ. Indeed, his nascent company diverges from most Big Tech platforms in a few notable ways: UpScrolled offers an old-fashioned chronological feed, rather than one dictated by an algorithm ostensibly serving up content you’ll latch onto; the platform also promises not to share user data with marketing firms or other commercial enterprises. And Hijazi, who is of Palestinian descent, founded UpScrolled in response to widespread user allegations that some social media companies were censoring or shadow-banning their posts—particularly pro-Palestinian content. The platform explicitly vows “never” to covertly suppress content, provided it doesn’t violate UpScrolled’s community guidelines. Aside from breaking with plenty of Big Tech norms, Hijazi’s stance is rare among Silicon Valley types for being uniquely, overtly ideological. (In our conversation, Hijazi …

Clavicular confronted by trans women over who started ‘looksmaxxing’

Clavicular confronted by trans women over who started ‘looksmaxxing’

Published by skeptic

“Looksmaxxing” influencer Clavicular was recently approached by three trans women, prompting a discussion on which community — incels or trans women — really started the intense beauty movement. In a viral video clipped from a recent Kick stream, Clavicular was seen eating at a Florida restaurant when his friend, Andrew Morales, aka the “Cuban Tarzan,” spotted three attractive women and pushed the camera their way to show the “gooners.” Soon, the three women made their way to Clavicular’s table, with one asking, “Why am I mogging you right now?” Mogging is a term to describe outshining someone’s beauty. “I’m dragqueenmaxxing right now, no shade,” the unnamed woman added. SEE ALSO: The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet’s most unhinged subculture The three women then told Clavicular, also known as 20-year-old Braden Peters, that they were trans. Clavicular responded by asking questions about the women’s anatomy. The discussion changed when the woman who first approached the table told Clavicular, “You know that trans women are the OG looksmaxxers?” Mashable Trend Report Clavicular …

Three LNG Tankers Are First To Cross Strait Of Hormuz Since War Started

Three LNG Tankers Are First To Cross Strait Of Hormuz Since War Started

Published by Jenni Sidey

While a growing number of ships have been traversing the Strait of Hormuz, with Lloyd’s List reporting a total of 142 vessels have transited since the start of March, but 67% of that traffic has a direct affiliation with Iran… and the figure rises to 90% when looking at traffic in recent days, as some ships have had to pay fees in yuan or cryptocurrencies before being escorted through the strait… IRAN’S TOLL SYSTEM IS NOW LIVE IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ In the last 24 hours, around 10 ships have made it through. Here’s how the system works: The IRGC is running an informal checkpoint inside the Strait. 1. Ships submit cargo and vessel details through intermediaries 2.… https://t.co/Q21S0gN0Zm pic.twitter.com/PrSDQpKo3R — Milk Road Macro (@MilkRoadMacro) April 2, 2026 … one vessel class that has so far failed to make the key crossing are LNG-carrying VLCCs, which are critical to ease the Asian nat gas supply crunch because,  unlike oil, there are no Hormuz alternatives or bypass pipelines to bring LNG/nat gas to gas-starved Asian customers where demand …

The revolution in dinosaur science started 50 years ago – here’s what we have learned

The revolution in dinosaur science started 50 years ago – here’s what we have learned

Published by skeptic

The study of dinosaurs has been through a revolution in recent decades. The story began half a century ago, when Robert McNeill Alexander, a professor of zoology at the University of Leeds, showed how the speed of an animal could be calculated from the spacing of its footprints and its body size. This formula worked both for modern and extinct animals and so, for the first time, the speed of a dinosaur could be estimated from a fossilised trackway. Alexander calculated speeds for different dinosaurs of between 1.0 and 3.6 metres per second (up to 13kmh) – rather slower than others had guessed. In the 1970s, dinosaurs were becoming exciting again after years of being treated as lumbering failures. Termed the “dinosaur renaissance”, American paleontologists Robert Bakker and John Ostrom were among those transforming understanding by arguing that dinosaurs were active, possibly warm-blooded, and that they included the ancestors of birds. Remarkable fossils of feathered dinosaurs from China, found from 1996 onwards, cemented this idea. Before Alexander’s groundbreaking study in 1976, palaeontologists had made “reasonable …

Why America’s Catholic Bishops Started Sounding Liberal

Why America’s Catholic Bishops Started Sounding Liberal

Published by Sam Flores

Not so long ago, when U.S. Catholic leaders said something political, they tended to sound like conservatives. American bishops’ most prominent policy statements focused on three issues: same-sex marriage, contraception, and—above all—abortion. Their frequently stated opposition to all three put them at odds with not just the left but also many Catholics. It even created tension with Rome. Since Donald Trump’s reelection, however, the Church in the United States has been sounding more liberal. Its teaching hasn’t changed, but the president’s second term has shifted the bishops’ attention. The most urgent political concern for America’s Catholic leaders is no longer abortion; it’s immigration. The issue has featured in their agenda for a while. After all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that wealthy countries should welcome refugees and economic migrants “to the extent they are able.” But now immigration dominates U.S. Catholic leaders’ public messaging. In November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops published a rare “special message” decrying the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportation.” The day of Trump’s State of the Union address, …

I didn’t know the Recycle Bin had a size limit until files started disappearing

I didn’t know the Recycle Bin had a size limit until files started disappearing

Published by skeptic

There’s a specific kind of panic that sets in when you open the Recycle Bin in Windows to recover deleted files and find they’re gone. You didn’t permanently delete the files, nor did you hold Shift. You just deleted it the normal way, the way you’ve deleted files for years, fully expecting it to sit patiently in that little trash can until you needed it. I’ve been there, and the explanation turned out to be so mundane it was almost insulting: the Recycle Bin decided my older files were a liability and disposed of them without a word. That specific betrayal sent me down a rabbit hole I clearly should have gone down years ago. Here’s what was actually going on. The Recycle Bin has been rationing space this whole time Five percent of your drive is doing a lot of heavy lifting Most people treat the Recycle Bin like a bottomless holding pen — send something there, forget about it, retrieve it someday if needed. But it was never bottomless. The Recycle Bin stores …

Two Literal Crypto Bros Built a Real Estate Empire. Then the Homes Started to Fall Apart

Two Literal Crypto Bros Built a Real Estate Empire. Then the Homes Started to Fall Apart

Published by skeptic

As they eyed further expansion in Detroit, the brothers worked with real estate professional Shawn Reed, who, according to court documents, started to identify and sometimes help renovate properties for RealT to tokenize. Unbeknownst to the Jacobsons, Reed had a checkered past; he had previously served prison time for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and once agreed that he could be described as a “slumlord.” He teed up deals that helped RealT to keep pace with the now-soaring demand for its tokens. I spoke with one investor, who posts on Telegram as TokNist, who said that when they first heard about RealT, they understood the proposition immediately. A French national living in Asia, TokNist (who asked to not be named out of fear of retaliation by other RealT investors) had wanted to buy real estate but couldn’t secure a loan. RealT offered a way to invest small sums without any bank involvement. “A lot of people are like me,” says TokNist. “They are not wealthy speculators. They are simple people who want a piece of …